


you're it

by rapunzelles



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Anime Spoilers, Canon - Anime, Childhood Sweethearts, F/F, ooey gooey fluff, season one spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-19 05:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4733678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rapunzelles/pseuds/rapunzelles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>they talk about her, sometimes, when they’re alone together.</p>
<p>that’s not unexpected, right? it’s ordinary for girls to talk about the person they’re in love with, especially when they’re in love with the same person, and they’re all friends, and it’s complicated but not jealous and not bitter, because they know she would never choose between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you're it

they talk about her, sometimes, when they’re alone together.  
  
that’s not unexpected, right? it’s ordinary for girls to talk about the person they’re in love with, especially when they’re in love with the same person, and they’re all friends, and it’s complicated but not jealous and not bitter, because they know she would never choose between them. if they confessed, it would be at the same time, and she would most likely say “yes” to both, or maybe she would misunderstand their meaning and say “well, of course you love me, that’s not news, i love you too”, and they would have to explain. and maybe in the end, it would turn out it wasn’t a misunderstanding at all. maybe they’re already dating, it’s just that none of them have said anything yet. maybe it just grew, organically, and bloomed without any fanfare.  
  
it’s not often that they’re together, without her, but when they are, they talk about her, and being in love with her.

 

* * *

  
  
they talk about when it first probably happened one night during a sleepover when honoka had already fallen asleep, snoring softly next to them. they’re thirteen years old, not yet enrolled in otonokizawa, not yet idols.  
  
“the playground,” kotori suggests suddenly, after a long silence. she’s whispering, but her voice still sounds relatively loud compared to honoka’s soft snores, and she hushes herself before continuing. “where we all first met.”  
  
umi blushes, and buries her head in her pillow, embarrassed beyond the level she thought she was capable of being embarrassed to, but gives a tiny, nearly imperceptible nod. the kind anyone but kotori and honoka would never notice, because nobody knew her as well as they did. nobody watched her like they did. “we were always chasing after her.”  
  
“it started out as just tag, though,” kotori laughed. “but now it’s… more, i guess.”  
  
“yeah.” umi’s face is still hidden, but kotori can see the tips of her ears turning red, and kotori laughs again before snuggling closer to her and honoka, just happy to be with them, happy to be in love and not alone with her feelings, not alone in blissfully chasing after honoka to see where life would take them.  
  
still playing tag, just more meaningful now.

 

* * *

  
  
when they’re fifteen, walking home together from their first day of highschool, kotori tries to wonder aloud what it might be like to kiss her, for real, once honoka has separated to head the rest of the way to her own home, planting a kiss on both their cheeks before she runs off.  
  
umi splutters and yells about how they’re much too young to think about such things, and kotori agrees to drop the subject, but out of the corner of her eye she can see umi’s heated cheeks, and she can see her trace a finger over her lips, gaze soft and unfocused, lost in thought.  
  
soon they arrive at umi’s house, and kotori kisses her on those lips just as they’re about to part ways, and laughs as she hurries off.  
  
“you’re it!”  
  
umi yells her name in embarrassment, dropping her bag at the doorstep, and chases after her. she wonders if this is how honoka feels all the time. she definitely hopes this is how honoka feels if she ever kisses her. light, and free, and happy and playful, without a worry or fear in the world, because she knows they’ll catch up eventually.

 

* * *

  
  
they’re sixteen now, and kotori and umi are alone again.  
  
it’s not that it’s been a long time since they had this chance, it’s just that whenever they have their conversations are full of school or songs or costumes or dance routines instead. they haven’t had time to talk about love, but they know they both feel the same, of course. sandbox love never dies.  
  
that’s why the first thing umi asks is “what about honoka?” after kotori announces her plans to leave and study abroad. not “what about the love live”, or “what about the school”. it’s honoka. for them, it’s always honoka, first and foremost.  
  
kotori bites her lip, her chest tight and aching. “she said i could go. she wants me to go. it’s my dream.”  
  
“do you really believe that?”  
  
“honoka-chan has always been the type to say exactly what she means.”  
  
umi starts to argue, then sees the look on kotori’s face; her eyes are rimmed with red, watery and hazy, and her lower lip is trembling. so instead, she holds her, silently burrowing her head in her neck as kotori begins to sob, tracing her fingers and hands across her back in an attempt to comfort her.

 

* * *

  
  
for once, now, it’s honoka and umi who are alone together. kotori’s the one racing ahead of them, leaving them behind, and they’re not sure they’ll be able to catch up. she’s running very far away, after all.  
  
honoka is quiet. she’s been quiet, ever since hearing the news, and it’s so unlike her that umi knows she can’t really be happy about this. she laces her fingers together with hers, clasping her clammy, nervous hand tight with honoka’s, and they sit like that together in silence, quietly mourning the loss of something precious and irreplaceable.  
  
suddenly, honoka starts to sob.  
  
“i don’t want her to leave,” she cries, voice shaking. “i want her to stay!”  
  
“then tell her,” umi says softly. “i- none of us want her to leave. it won’t be the same without her.”  
  
“but it’s her dream.” honoka pulls her legs up to her chest, unlacing her fingers from umi’s to hug them. “she’s loved fashion since we were kids. i can’t ask her to give up on such a great opportunity to chase after it. it’s so close.”  
  
_she’s loved you since we were kids, too_ , umi thinks.  _she’s been chasing after you this whole time._  
  
instead of saying that, though, umi shifts up onto her knees, and leans her face in close to honoka’s. the ginger gives a surprised little hiccup, and her cheeks are red and stained with tears, and umi kisses her.  
  
it’s short, and soft, and her heart is pounding. this certainly isn’t how she imagined it would be, but it feels right.  
  
“tag,” she mumbles as she pulls away. “ _you’re it_.”

 

* * *

  
  
the airport is crowded, and honoka is sure she’s late, but she’s still running as fast as she can and searching desperately for kotori’s familiar face in the sea of strangers. and then she hears them call for kotori’s plane to board, and she doesn’t see her face but she does see that goofy hairstyle that only kotori has that honoka never realized how much she loved seeing peeking over the tops of fashion magazines and textbooks until suddenly she was threatened with not getting to see it every day ever again, and she screams out her name and kotori drops her suitcase in shock, turning just as honoka grabs her in the tightest hug she’s ever received.  
  
“ _don’t go_!” she cries, and she kisses her, right there in the airport, with everyone watching. “don’t leave us. don’t leave  _me_.”  
  
it’s like a scene from a movie kotori watched once, except it’s not a movie, and it’s happening to her and it’s honoka and she’s saying the only thing she’s wanted to hear since she found out about the study abroad program.  
  
_don’t go._  
  
“i won’t,” she’s crying too, now, but she’s smiling and laughing through her tears at the same time. “i won’t go, i love you too much to ever leave.”  
  
“i love you, too!” honoka is laughing, too, and holding her tighter, and kissing her again. “i love you, i love you, i love you!”  
  
“geez, you’re so indecent,” umi smiles, walking up to them. her and the others had finally caught up. “kissing and crying and yelling in public.”  
  
“umi-chan!!” kotori pulls her into the hug as well, and the pair attack her with kisses on both cheeks, and even though she’s yelling in protest, she melts into their arms and laughs, too, and the rest of muse smiles and looks on, not wanting to interrupt their intimate moment quite yet.  
  
the fanfare was just late, is all.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this for a bonus round of SASO 2015! we were given quotes as prompts. the one that inspired this was "Some of us are probably still 'it' from a childhood game of tag" from just-shower-thoughts on tumblr. it was my first completed fic in years, and i'm glad it was hono/koto/umi as they're very dear to me. it'd been awhile since i watched season one, so any plotholes with canon are artistic license for the sake of lesbians, haha.


End file.
